Hawaiian Airlines to add revamped Airbus A330 jet to fleet

A Hawaiian Airlines plane undergoes de-icing before takeoff at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seatac, Washington January 19, 2012. REUTERS/Cliff DesPeaux

(Reuters) - Hawaiian Airlines said on Tuesday it plans to add a revamped version of the Airbus A330 jetliner to its fleet beginning in 2019 as it looks to expand to longer-haul destinations.

The carrier said it signed an agreement to acquire six widebody A330-800neo planes, with rights to buy six more. The list-price value of the six planes and the purchase rights add up to about $2.9 billion.

The order for the A330neo, which will have new, more fuel-efficient Rolls-Royce engines, replaces an existing order for six A350XWB-800 planes, Hawaiian said.

Hawaiian’s A350-800 order was seen as one of the main remaining obstacles to halting the slow-selling A350-800, which Airbus wants to stop developing in favor of the revamped A330neo and the larger A350-900.

Hawaiian, which also has Boeing planes in its fleet, had said earlier this month it was prepared to look at the A330neo.

The airline also reported on Tuesday that strong demand and cost controls helped net income for the second quarter more than double to $27.3 million, or 43 cents a share, from $11.3 million, or 21 cents a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted for items, profit was 35 cents a share, compared with 33 cents expected by analysts on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.